Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery calls veteran 'enemy' during marijuana debate

ABC15 Arizona ^ | 3/31/2015 | Sara Goldenberg

[Conscience of a Conservative]

The Maricopa County attorney is coming under fire for calling a veteran an "enemy" during a debate-- and he's not backing down from his words.

This all unfolded at a debate over legalizing marijuana last week hosted by the Tempe Republican Women.

Bill Montgomery told a veteran he had no respect for him after the vet asked for a meeting to discuss how medical marijuana has improved his life.

"With all due respect sir, your name calling, 'potheads' offends me,” said Don Ream during a Q & A portion of the debate.

Ream is a Vietnam veteran. He's been a medical marijuana patient for several years, and he told Montgomery he'd like to "educate him" on recreational use.

Montgomery argued against legalizing the drug in Arizona. It’s an issue that could come up on the November ballot in 2016.

When Ream admitted to smoking recreationally, Montgomery responded:

"I have no respect for you, for someone that tried to claim you served this country and took an oath to uphold the constitution and defend against all enemies foreign and domestic because you're an enemy,” he said.

The crowd booed back to him.

After the debate, Montgomery released this statement:

"Is [ream] an enemy like ISIS or Al Qaeda? Of course not. But if he or any other vet is going to use their status as a veteran to encourage people to break the law, then that does make them an enemy of our constitution and our laws and that is a sad commentary on where we are at."

Montgomery is a veteran himself. He's a West Point graduate who served in the Gulf War.

ABC15 wasn’t able to get a hold of Don Reams for a comment.

[ConservingFreedom]

Here's what the Constitution actually authorizes:

I am not interested in hearing your opinion on the Constitution.

LOL! That was a QUOTATION from the Constitution, not "my opinion" - maybe you should actually read the Constitution before you pontificate on "US Government authority under the Constitution".

[DiogenesLamp]

That was a QUOTATION from the Constitution..

The Devil quotes the bible. You use the constitution in the same way and for the same reason. To Justify and Spread evil.

[ConservingFreedom]

Many of them go on to worse drugs

According to the federal government, lifetime use of marijuana is 44% but past month use of illicit drugs other than marijuana is only 3.3%.

[dware]

Many of them go on to worse drugs and end up wrecking their lives and the lives of many around them, not to mention the fact that the rest of us end up paying for these welfare bums.

False propaganda, but nice try. The 'gateway drug' BS is just that. There are many morons that go on to harder drugs, but it has nothing to do with pot, and everything to do with the person doing the drug.

The stuff has been linked to numerous psychotic breaks.

False - how many other substances were involved with the pot?

You do not see the drug as dangerous because you have a far too limited scope of the problem.

Not only false, but you really have no idea what you're talking about, with all due respect.

[moehoward]

"This is incrementalism in progress."

For a certain contingent, yes. But that in no way invalidates medical pot.

[asinclair]

dangerous chemical threats, of which Marijuana constitutes one of the lesser ones

Have you looked at the history behind the current stance on marijuana? Can you point to any studies showing the harmful effects of marijuana, or its active ingredients?

The original laws, before the Civil War, required labeling Cannabis as a "poison". Indeed, up to the 20th Century, the issue was about labeling, not prohibition.

Things didn't start to get tense until -- wait for it -- there were an influx of Mexicans. Reportedly, many Mexicans smoked marijuana to relax after working in the fields. Before the Great Depression, there still weren't any prohibitions. After the Great Depression, there was a slew of actions, including the establishment of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics in 1930. There were lots of claims by the head of the FBN, which resulted in the various States adopting laws to regulate Cannabis.

The Federal government used to look more kindly to Marijuana, with the passing of the Marijuana Tax Act in 1937. Further, The Department of Agriculture and the US Army encouraged farmers to cultivate hemp between 1942 and 1945 (not for smoking or THC extraction).

For further reading: the Lagurdia Commission of 1944.

Then SCOTUS lent its paw, declaring the Marijuana Tax Act to be unconstitutional, in 1969. Oops.

Bottom line: the eventual prohibition was based on questionable studies -- bad science. Not surprising, as most of the arguments against the weed were emotional, not considered thought.

(Disclosure: I am not a user of marijuana myself, and don't anticipate a need to become a user.)

[DiogenesLamp]

Yes i've looked at the history. The D@Mn Libertarians will not *LET* you discuss this topic without going into an endless spiel about how RACISTS, ILLEGAL, and UNSCIENTIFIC was the original classification of the drug.

Libertarians are big on coloring or rewriting history to make their pursuit of Narcotic Utopia seem justifiable. The constant assertion that "Drugs were legal when the Nation was founded" is another one of these misleading claims that is intended to leave a deliberate false understanding of the History.

They simply ignore evidence that contradicts their agenda, and sometimes they simply make crap up. A month or so ago someone quoted me this line supposedly stated in congress to justify the inclusion of Marijuana in the list of banned substances.

Only problem was, it was a lie. Oh, the quote is widely spread all over the internet, but it does not exist in the actual congressional testimony that it supposedly came from. Come to find out, it was first noted in a book published by a long time dope advocate known as the "Emperor of Hemp", Jack Herer. It appears he just made it up.

Here's a picture of him.

Yeah, unbiased and Scholarly he is.

[Conscience of a Conservative]

So is Valium if you regard treating the symptoms of a problem with narcotics as "Medicine."

And Valium is, of course, legal with a prescription. Why shouldn't marijuana be as well?

But we all know this "Medicinal" argument is just bullsh*t. It's just an effort to get a foot in the door, before forcing it open to the much greater demand for recreational usage. This is incrementalism in progress.

So we should prohibit a treatment that is effective for a wide range of conditions, because people will also use it recreationally?

[DiogenesLamp]

And Valium is, of course, legal with a prescription. Why shouldn't marijuana be as well?

If it is provided in a non-recreational form and to treat real medical conditions, (Not fake ones like they did in California "medical" marijuana scams) I have no objections to it.

So we should prohibit a treatment that is effective for a wide range of conditions, because people will also use it recreationally?

You side step my point. My point is that this clamor to legalize it for "medical" purposes is just a vehicle to open the door to a general legalization for recreational purposes.

The usage for real verified medical purposes is miniscule compared to the usage which will occur for recreation.

"Medical Marijuana" is the Ryan White of the legalize drugs push. Ryan White, if you will remember, is the non-homosexual child who was infected with AIDS by a blood transfusion, and thereafter served as the public face for pushing the government to pump billions into curing this specifically homosexual disease.

It was a feint. It was a propaganda tool to get what they wanted while hiding what was really happening from the public. That's what "Medical Marijuana" is too. It's just a tool.

[discostu]

Much like our old time based medications it’s not what’s put in it, it’s what is already in it. 2 of the big properties that make it medical are that it’s an anti-nauseal and a fairly effective pain reducer.

[Wolfie]

Oh, give the guy a break. Marijuana Prohibition is crumbling and his job is in danger. Statist jag-off, that he is.

[SZonian]

I can’t recall ever seeing anyone of a Viet Vet’s age entering or leaving our local mj houses...mostly 20 somethings...must be an epidemic of cancer or something in the millenial generation.

[gdani]

And that is your goal; To convince the nation to do something stupid by constantly repeating false claims.

You mean like when you make up obviously false stats & post them on these threads, then get riled up when people call you out on your BS?

[DiogenesLamp]

You mean like when you make up obviously false stats & post them on these threads, then get riled up when people call you out on your BS?

You are going to have to do better than that before I bother to take you seriously.

[Ken H]

Oh, give the guy a break. Marijuana Prohibition is crumbling and his job is in danger. Statist jag-off, that he is.

Too bad for him and other prohibitionists that Ted Cruz threw them under the bus at CPAC =>

__________________________________________________________________

"I actually think this is a great embodiment of what Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis called 'the laboratories of democracy.' If the citizens of Colorado decide they want to go down that road, that's their prerogative. I personally don't agree with it, but that's their right."

--Ted Cruz at CPAC Feb 26, 2015

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdX-eErbtq8

__________________________________________________________________

And did Cruz suffer for it? Apparently not! Just in =>

__________________________________________________________________

Cruz enters top tier of GOP hopefuls

http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/republican-presidential-primary-2016/

[gdani]

You are going to have to do better than that before I bother to take you seriously.

Would it help if I posted a statistic I made up?

I don't want you to feel isolated & all alone in your embarrassment.

How about this? -- Water freezes at 41 degrees.

[DiogenesLamp]

Would it help if I posted a statistic I made up?

No, the lies you are currently telling qualify.

[Wolfie]

Cruz is a Liberaldopian Pothead I guess. So it goes.

[rednesss]

If the government has all the authority it needs, why did they have to pass the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution to prohibit the sale of alcohol in 1920? We still have the same Constitution right?

[itsahoot]

The Constitution grants the federal government no authority over the intrastate growing, selling, buying, or using of marijuana.

It does however grant Congress the authority to pass laws and regulations which are enforceable, or did you forget that part?